Stash the Trash

The Clackamas River is one of the few easily accessed recreational rivers in the Portland Metro Region. The mainstem Clackamas River has seen an exponential rise in recreational use over the last few years, which has unfortunately corresponded in an increase in litter left behind by these users. Preventing this trash from entering the river is of utmost importance: the Clackamas provides drinking water for over 200,000 people, supports the last significant run of wild late-run Coho in the Columbia basin, and is home to one of only two remaining runs of spring Chinook in the Willamette basin. Trash isn’t good for salmon, drinking water, or recreational users – the Stash the Trash campaign helps to protect all of those groups. In fact, we credit the Stash the Trash campaign with a significant reduction seen in trash along the river. Our annual Down the River Cleanup event has seen a decrease in the amount of tons of trash removed per year, down from a high of 4.29 tons of trash removed in 2006 to 2.48 tons removed at last year’s event.

Interviews with river users and Park Rangers give anecdotal evidence that the bags are being used, and staff often find empty stands while they replace the bags – which occurs twice per week between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Many recreationists take bags along when they launch – peer modeling “best practices” by using the bags themselves, offering them to other paddlers, and using the bags to clean up after others. Anglers on the Willamette River have been seen using our bags too!   

Contact us if you'd like to become a sponsor of Stash the Trash - business and community partners will have their logos displayed on the bags, which are distributed twice-weekly between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year.